


Essence of the Journey

by Jasenerd



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Gen, Nen (Hunter X Hunter)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-05-18 01:06:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14842676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jasenerd/pseuds/Jasenerd
Summary: A tragedy struck a small mining town, leaving a sole survivor alone and on the run. After weeks of pursuit, Gaige was finally saved by a pair of young Hunters and their master. Exposed to the wonderfully deadly world of Nen, a new ambition burns at Gaige's heart, to master the strange powers of Nen. Set on his way, Gaige begins a long and perilous journey to be coming a hunter.





	1. Chapter 1

Fire burned at my lungs, begging me to stop. The steps behind me told me to keep running.

Brush snagged at my pants, ripping and tearing at my legs. Each bloody step slower. A wet cough bubbled up unbidden. I grimaced, clutching my side as another flare of pain lanced up my chest. Still came the steps. He was closer now. Another burst of energy roared through me, giving me the strength to run again. Trees blurred past as my legs tore themselves apart. Each movement a new agony.

Each new pain, another reason to live. Pain was life. Life was good. The steady steps faded into the distance, farther now. But never lost. It will come again. It always does. First I slowed to a walk, then collapsed under a large tree. The leafy kind. I could rest now; He was far. A small stream flowed by here. Slowly, I reached down and brought up a handful of water to my lips.

Slowly, the energy left me. It started at the edges of my eyes. Then the black slowly crept up. I was tired. Hungry. Need to eat something before I pass out. Leaf was close to my face. I pulled them down. Dry and starchy. Okay. I can let go now. I have time.

0-0-0-0-0-

Steps. I bolt up and run. Legs catch on something, throwing me down hard. Broke something in my arm. Something grabs me. I kick out and try to force myself out of it’s grip, but it’s too strong. I’m going to die. The hard grip is going to keep going and crush me too. Blood bubbles out of my mouth. Someone was shouting.

“Kid! Kid stop moving. Shoot put him in Hotel Rafflesia!” I bit at the hand that tried to pull me up. It... wasn’t _him_.

“Who...?” I began coughing again, but the boy holding me held a cloth to my mouth.

“It’s okay kid, we’re hunters.” The one holding me from behind said. I turned my head to look at the smiling man with a black pompadour. “Come on, sit down so we can do some first aid.”

“Here Knuckle, call Sensei.” Someone from the left threw a small black phone to Knuckle. “I’ll treat him.”

Knuckle nodded and let a lanky teen with pale skin and a purple pony tail on the right side of his head pulled me over to sit on a root. Pain lanced up my legsas the bastard poured something on my feet. He didn’t say anything as he began wrapping my feet in gauze. Minutes passed, then Knuckle came back. I cringed when I saw the blood I smeared on his white over coat.

“Sensei is on his way. How does he look?”

“He broke his arm and some of his ribs. His legs were bleeding, enough that he may need a transfusion.” Shoot said, wiping his bloodied hands on his purple ropes. “I think he has bronchitis too. He’s lucky that his ribs haven’t punctured his lungs.”

Steps echoed in the dim twilight. I jolt upright, “He’s coming! You have to run! Get out of here!”

Knuckle immediately dropped down and hugged me. “It’s okay kid, we’ll keep you safe. It’s probably just Sensei getting here.”

Tears prickled at my eyes, “No! It’s not safe. He’s going to kill you!”

“Kid-”

“Knuckle!” Shoot shouted, “It’s a nen beast!” Knuckle tightened his grip on me.

“Okay, stay here kid. I’ll take care of this.” Knuckle stood up, and threw his jacket around me, revealing his rippling muscles to the crisp evening air. Something covered his body and then he was off in a blur. My head snapped as he was suddenly across the clearing and punching _it_. The human shaped haze stumbled back, before attempting to grab Knuckle.

“Watch out! Don’t let it grab you!” I shouted, but it didn’t matter. Three hands flew at the side of the blur, sending it flying off into a tree. Shoot threw off his left sleeve, where instead of an arm he had a floating cage in a green aura.

“Thanks Kid!” Knuckle shouted back, jumping forward. As he moved, the haze surrounding him bloomed into a white radiance. _It,_ crumpled under the blow, disappearing into a fine orange mist that just disappeared.

“What was that? Those magic hand things?” My voice was small, holding back the wonder in my eyes.

Shoot flinched, “You can see them?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” I felt my brief surge of energy leave me.

“We’ll explain later. Just try to stay with us.” I began to slump over, before strong arm caught me in a gentle hug. “I know you must hurt, but you’re safe now.”

From behind me, a deep voice asked, “What happened to him?”

“Sensei!” Knuckle shouted. “He was running from a nen beast when we found him. He needs to go to the hospital.”

A large man strode in front of me. He was tall, taller than even my dad. And my dad is the tallest... Was the tallest. His shoulders were three me’s wide. He was wearing a grey business shirt with a red tie. “Wow, you are sooo big.” The words slipped out of my lips before I could stop them.

“Hi,” The big man said. He knelt down and was still taller than me. “I am Morel Mackernasey, a hunter.”

“Hiya, I’m Gaige.” I said, giggling.

“You are in shock right now. We are going to take you to a hospital. Is that okay?”

“What do you mean? I don’t feel shocked.”

“Okay, up you come.” Morel lifted me onto his back, before he used smoke to tie me in place. Smoke! It’s so cool. Then he _ran_. It was like one moment I was here and now I’m like a day away! The trees became hills became houses and then we were at a big white hospital. He got us in quickly and then I was in a white bed and told to go to sleep.

0-0-0-0-

I woke up in a light room. My chest felt tight and I was being poked in the arm. The walls were a weird beige colour, and the lights were right above me. I felt fuzzy. Beside my bed, there was Knuckle’s funny hair, I think he feel asleep in his chair. The clock on the wall said it was three six. I moved up a bit, feeling my arm being pinched.

There was a tube going into my arm. I think I saw them before. An... EV?

“You’re awake.” Morel’s deep voice sprung out of nowhere. I frantically searched until I found him at the door.

“Yup. Morel?”

“Yeah?” Morel asked, pulling a chair from the small desk and sitting at the foot of my bed.

“Thank you for helping me.” I smiled at him.

“It’s not a problem Gaige. It’s part of the job.”

“So hunters are like super heroes then?” Morel laughed, but not meanly. Like I was funny.

“I guess so.” Morel had a cool smile, even if looked stupid with his sunglasses on inside.

“So can I get my superpower if I become a hunter?”

“What do you mean kid?” Morel asked, shifting in his seat.

“Well, like Shoot’s hand thingies or Knuckles super punch!” I said, moving my hands to show the man what I meant. I hit Knuckles head by accident.

“I’m up!” Knuckle said, bolting upright. He’s eyes were all glassy until he blinked again.

“Oh, sorry Knuckle. And thanks for saving me.”

“It’s okay Gaige.” Knuckle gave me a nice smile.

“What is your cool magic punch?” I asked, happiness bubbling in me. “Can you teach me?”

“Uh,” Knuckle looked at Morel, but I didn’t see anything when I looked. “You have to be a hunter to learn to use Nen.”

“It’s called Nen.” I beamed, giving Knuckle my happiest smile.

Morel coughed in the background. “If you want to be a hunter, you need to pass the Hunter Exam.”

“Sure.” I agreed. “What’s a Hunter Exam?”

Morel and Knuckle shared one of those adult looks, before they both chuckled. “Well kid, the next exam is tomorrow, and you’re not going to be able to get there on time.”

“Awww, please?”

“Ha, kid you won’t be able to get out of the hospital until the week’s over. You have multiple infections and broken bones to deal with.” Knuckle said, messing my hair. “It’s really cute how excited you are thought.”

“Why wouldn’t I be excited? It’s magic!” I said, grabbing Knuckles arm. “Can you teach me some tricks so I can do like really good on the Hunter Exam thing?”

“Sensei?”

Morel seemed to pause and consider me. “I guess he follow us until the next exam. He might learn enough to survive the tests at least.”

-0-0-0-0-

Morel was so cool! So hunters have all these rules they need to follow to be hunters, and I don’t know them all yet but the first is that a hunter needs to hunt. Like duh. Knuckle and Shoot were beast hunters, because they wanted to find all these weird animals and stuff. Morel had something called a one star license, meaning he did something really good or something. Not the point. Morel was a Sea Hunter. So he did all this cool diving stuff.

“Hey! Don’t stop yet Gaige!” Knuckle shouted. With a raspy breath, I redoubled my push ups. This burn in my stomach and arms is different then when I was running from... _it._ It felt nicer, like I was hugging a big warm rock.

“298, 299, 300!” With a grunt, I dropped onto the sandy beach. My arms felt like jelly, but I dragged myself up to do the next exercise. Squats. Yay....

The steady movements did make it easy to think. Nen was this magic that I totally wanted. But the meanies wouldn’t tell me how to use it. Just that I needed to get myself fit and healthy. Well, I mean duh. Why can’t I do that _and_ get magic powers. This is why adults suck. And look, there’s Shoot doing his magic flying hand things.

“Hey, when I can learn this Nen stuff? I want to have my own magic hands.” I said, giving Knuckle my biggest eyes.

Knuckle sighed. “Look, you need to be strong enough to pass the Hunter Exam, then you can worry about Nen.”

“I can see Nen just fine! You said that was only possible if you had Nen.”

“That’s not how it works kid.” Knuckle said, doing his own push ups beside me. I think he was past 600 now, _show off_. “Everyone _has_ aura, Nen is just the method of using it. Most people can’t even see aura, the only reason you can is because of that creature that hunted you down.”

“You opened the aura nodes in your eyes, that doesn’t mean you can use Nen.” Shoot added from the side.

“Well when can I start to learn! It’s been months.”

Before either of my two friends could reply, Morel walked out of the ocean. His suit was in tatters, with bite marks littering the skin underneath. Over one shoulder, he had his pipe. The thing had to weigh a hundred pounds and he just causally had it over his shoulder. Underneath his other arm, was a wooden chest.

“Sensei.” The three of us said in unison. Morel gave us a wane smile as he tossed the chest over in between the four of us. It landed with a solid thump and slid a good metre forward.

“Did you find your monster?” I asked, walking forward to the chest. The lock was rusted shut. Even if I had my tools, I don’t think I could pop it.

“It hasn’t been in this part of the ocean in decades,” Morel said, going over to his pack and pulling out a new set of clothes.

“Kid, move for a second.” Knuckle said, moving behind me. The moment I was clear, he grabbed the edges of the lid and just ripped the sucker open. Inside, various gems where just pilled inside. With the noon sun, they sparkled in a very stunning rainbow.

“What now Sensei?” Shoot asked, shrugging on his robe.

“Let’s go back to Szelatchz. We can unload these to a treasure hunter or a pawn shop.” Sensei said, tying another red tie around his neck. “Then Gaige can start to learn Nen, while I look for another lead.”

“Yay!” I shouted, jumping up to hug Morel. “Thank you thank you thank you than-”

“First, we’ll run to Szelatchz. You’ll have to keep up Gaige.” Morel said, using one of his hands to put me back on the sand.

“Yes!” I said, Already hopping from foot to foot. Running with someone was so fun! Much better than running away. I was getting magic!


	2. Chapter 2

The hotel Morel got us was really nice. The floors had these _very_ bright red carpets and all the furniture was _super_ comfortable. I even got my own bed! It was big and comfy and everything. Knuckle and I shared our room, but he was off with Morel doing Hunter stuff all the time. I wish I was a hunter already. Then I could go help and see all those cool things.

Instead I was stuck trying to ‘feel’ my aura. I had a list of exercises that Morel gave me, but they were all about meditation and I was far too excited to relax! For the first time since my tenth birthday I was going to go on a boat! A real one this time, with sails and everything! It was going to be so much fun! I was going to be with Morel and Knuckle and fight pirates or monsters.

“Gaige, pacing around isn’t going to make learning Nen any easier.” Shoot said, peeking around the doorway.

“But none of this garbage makes any sense,” I said, standing still so I could talk to Shoot. “What does finding your centre even mean.”

“Some of the early exercises can be a little...” Shoot trailed off.

“Stupid?”

“Obtuse.” Shoot walked into the room and sat on Knuckle’s bed. “Most of the techniques that Morel wrote down for you are different ways to feel for your aura. Why don’t you just sit down and we’ll go through them together.”

“No, that’s good. I would rather stay pacing.”

“Gaige? You’re not going to make any progress if you just pace.” Shoot hoisted me by my shoulder and sat me down beside him. “Okay. Just close your eyes.”

Hesitantly, I obeyed. As I’m sitting down beside Shoot, the black presses in. As I breathe out, I hear it again. _Step, step, step_. My breath was shaky as I breathed in again. _It’s getting closer._ Out again. Heart racing, I bolt up. Shoot was looking at me, surprised. I bounced a bit on my heels, before turning around and dashing out of the room.

“Seeyoulatergoingtogetadrink!” I shouted back, my feet already taking me out of the hotel. The streets of Szelatchz were quiet. The old wooden buildings pressed into the tight cobblestone roads. Smells of home wafted on the air, burnt pastry and grilled meats. A bitter smile wormed its way onto my face. My feet lead me through the maze of streets towards the river.

The spray of fresh water tickled my face as the shouts of boatmen echoed up and down the waterway. No one harassed me as I pinched an apple from a vendor. People never paid too close attention to dirty children. Here in the capital or back home. Ah, Morel was down talking to one of the boat captains. With a subtle step, I blended into the crowd.

“Also, I found some lost cargo at the last salvage.” Morel said, leaning his planted pipe against the tall table he was sitting at. It was covered in grey burlap, so it just looked like a covered tree trunk.

“What cargo? Ship’s have been avoiding that area for generations.” His friend(?) replied, looking up from her newspaper.

Morel grinned, leaning further over the table to whisper in the short woman’s ear. Whatever he said, it caused the brunette to grin widely and shout for another round of drinks. The conversation continued after that, but the crowd pulled me out of earshot. Whatever, Morel can handle all this talking stuff. He’s good at it after all.

Well, better than me anyway.

My mindless wandering brought me back to the graveyard. It was the same as the last time I visited, all iron fencing and mundane gravestones. Some didn’t even have names, those that did had little else. I walked past row after row of dead people. Each had dreams, lives, stories. Like I do, like living people do. Something bitter pulled at me, as I walked over to the small empty plot at the back.

Because it was against the very edge, the fence rising sharply, the plot was too small to bury an adult. It was perfect for my own grave though, because I was so small. I walked over, and sat in the middle of the grassy plot. Breathe in, that’s what Morel’s note said. Breathe in, and feel the build up of potential. Then Breathe out, and still the body.

Just breathe in.

And _stop_.

Stop running, stop moving, stop escaping. Stop and accept. Those damn steps echoed again. Driving my heart faster. Breathe in, feeling my limbs bursting with power. The desire, the _need_ to get away. Then just, let it go. Just stop. Relax my body, relax my mind. What was the secret to it? What made my eyes so different from the rest of me?

_Step, step, step._

No! I jumped from my spot, smashing my knee against something hard and falling into a roll. Like Knuckle showed me, I pushed myself up into a stumble. Had to keep moving. _It_ was close. Where was I, how do I get out? Iron gate, ruined segment of fence. Where was _it_ coming from?

With a crack, the terror broke. I was in Szelatchz, with Morel, and my two fellow students. The nen beast is dead. Knuckle killed it. My arms were shaking. I collapsed and hugged myself. My lungs burned, I couldn’t get enough air. I’m going numb, I can’t feel my face! I’m dying! Help, anyone please!

Ow. Pain flared up my left arm. Looking down, my nails have bitten into my forearm, causing little crescents of blood to seep out. My breath slowed, as I stared at my arm in confusion.

“Gaige?” Shoot’s voice echoed off the tombstones. “Gaige, you okay?”

“Yeah...” I replied. He was beside me in a blink, carefully holding onto me. The silence between the two of us just built up. Seconds stretched on, neither of us making much sound. I just leaned into the impromptu hug. It felt safe.

“Um, are you doing okay?”

“I don’t know.” I said, sighing slightly as Shoot squeezed me momentarily. We just kinda sat there, in the middle of the cemetery. Just sitting, surrounded by dead bodies. A dry giggle bubbled up again. Shoot just kind of looked at me with a frown. I guess I’m being, what’s the word, hysterical?

We just sat there for hours. Not really talking, just being together and hugging. Shoot was there, and didn’t complain. Just sat there with me. It was nice. The sky drifted from blue, to orange then finally to black. The clouds had blown in from the west. Rain clouds, if I remembered correctly. Their dark grey was slightly different from navy blue darkness of the night sky.

“I think we should head back,” I said. Shoot nodded, then slowly got up. I followed him, as we wove our way back to the hotel we were staying at. I think I spaced out, because they next thing I noticed was the taste of dinner. Sweetened chicken of some variety. It tasted like Merriel’s eastern food. She was always a happy neighbour. Knuckle, Shoot and I were eating in the hotel room, and I think I heard Morel talking to someone in his room.

“So Gaige, any progress on your Nen?” Knuckle asked. Beside him, Shoot stiffened slightly.

“No...” I muttered, taking another bite of my chicken paste thing.

“Well, don’t tell anyone, but it took me six months to achieve Ten.” Knuckle said, holding his hand beside his mouth. “It’s normal to take more than a couple weeks to get there.”

“I thought Ten was after I unlocked my nen?”

“Well, yes.” Knuckle said, serving himself another bowl of the rice and chicken dish. “Technically, Ten is it’s own technique, but it’s something you learn within hours of opening your aura nodes.”

“So I’ll get the force field as soon as I unstuck my aura nodes?”

Shoot put down his glass and responded; “The force field analogy wasn’t literal. Ten is less like a shield and more like a suit of armour. It can blunt most of the damage an injury could cause you, but never really stop it. Not on it’s own, at least.”

“Oh. Then why did you call it a force field on the way into town?” I asked, giving Knuckle a look.

“We were being brief, and force field is good imagery.” Knuckle said, reaching over and messing my hair. “I didn’t mean to lie to you buddy.”

“It’s fine. Nen is just confusing.”

Knuckle snorted, “Trust me kid, this isn’t the complicated part.”

At that moment, Morel returned to our temporary dining room. His normal lazy grin was there, but it felt different. Morel waiting until he sat down beside me before he started talking; “Our boat is leaving tomorrow night. Before we leave, I want to teach you guys how to sail.”

I felt excitement build back up inside me. “Okay! When are you teaching us!”

Morel chuckled, “We’ll begin at noon. That should give us plenty of time. Knuckle, Shoot, I want the two of you to continue working on your Hatsu before then, Gaige and I will work on getting him closer to achieving Ten.”

“Knuckle told it me takes a long time to get Ten, wouldn’t it be better to teach me how to fight or something?”

“It still takes daily work to get Ten, that’s the largest reason why so few people can use Nen. Besides, you can fight pretty good for a kid your size.” Morel said, messing my hair. Why do people do that all the time? “This isn’t going to be a job where we’ll have to fight much, if at all. If it’ll make you feel better, we can split tomorrow between Nen and combat training.”

“Thank you Sensei!” I said, giving Morel a big smile.

“No problem Gaige.”

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

“Can I have a weapon?” I asked, between heavy huffs. My sweaty and sore body was lying in the sand. Although it was painful, the high of exertion was a rush.

“I suppose, although most Hunters pick up a weapon after achieving Hatsu.” Morel said, before tossing a plastic water bottle onto my stomach from out of sight. I forced myself to sit up and take the water.

“You guys never explain Hatsu. Just that it’s the weird special powers.” I complained, drinking down the water.

“Hatsu is the last of the basic four Nen techniques. When you have the other three down, we’ll cover it. For know, you should focus on the next step first.” Morel said, throwing me a hand towel. I let it land on my head, before slowly standing up.

“So what time is it?” I asked, slowly rotating my arms.

“Twelve forty. We’ll meet Knuckle and Shoot for lunch, then off to the docks to practice sailing.” Morel said. “Come on, we’ll hit the shower first.”

The walk to the restaurant was easy, the streets were emptier than usual. Morel didn’t look too worried about it, so I didn’t let it bother me. It’s just something that kept needling at the back of my mind. The quiet emptiness of the streets was a lot like back then. Just no one around, almost empty of life altogether.

When Knuckle and Shoot met us at some random intersection, the noise of them being there really helped. Still, something kept bothering me. Every now and again, I would see something out of the corner of my eyes, only for it to disappear whenever I tried to find it. It must be the hunger, playing tricks on me.

The restaurant we went to was something a little weird. The outside was just a plain brick wall with a simple wood door. No sign or even window. Morel just opened the door, so we followed him into a fancy hallway. The walls were a rich red and the ground was that shiny hardwood that mom would always talk to dad about.

“Hello Mr. Mackernasey, your table is ready.” A voice said. I twitched as an impeccably dressed butler walked through a door a missed on the way in. He made small talk with Morel as he led us towards an open dining room area. The room was a bunch of circular table areas somewhat recluded from the centre hall that had an open kitchen thing going on.

The cooks were all working in some strange gear, and almost to the last had the haze of Aura outlining their bodies. The subtle dance of aura kept stealing my attention as we went to one of the small alcoves. The cooks would use Nen, or their Hatsu I guess, to grab strange looking ingredients, or to cook in some way or another.

“What is this place Sensei?” Shoot asked, his normally even voice a touch more emotive.

“This is a restaurant for gourmand hunters. It started with a Nen genius that could cook better than non users could. I’m not entirely sure how it grew this big, but now the 10 cooks are all either hunters or Nen geniuses. Since then, hunters have visited this restaurant almost every time they visit.” Morel explained, letting the three of us slide into the circular booth before sitting at the end beside Shoot.

“How can this place stay in business?” Knuckle asked.

“The added cost of hiring hunters is balanced out my the added income from serving food for gourmand hunters. The food is expensive, but it’s clientele are all rich and some come to the city just for this restaurant.”

“Wait, can you go back a bit?” I interrupted. “What’s a Nen genius?”

“Well, some people can use Nen without the training and techniques we learn. These people skip all the other steps to have a specific ability.” Knuckle explained. “It’s the expression of such a deep devotion, focus, obsession that the Nen reacts to their emotions and practice.”

“So like what I have with my eyes?”

On my other side, Shoot spoke up; “No, a genius will have a Hatsu or specialized Nen expression that they can use without even having their aura nodes unlocked.”

“Huh.”

Before our conversation could continue, the butler man came back. He was thin, and tall. The result was a look that was ever so slightly _off_. “Can I get you drinks to start with?”

“One water, and three beers please. Whatever you have on tap.” Morel replied.

“Okay, I’ll be back momentarily with your drinks.”

“Beer?” Knuckle asked.

“My sailing teacher always had a drink with me before going on a voyage. Said it was for luck.” Morel said.

“Sensei, I’m still sixteen for a week.” Shoot replied. “And I’m older than Knuckle.”

“In Colistran, the drinking age is sixteen. It’s tradition between hunters.”

Then our waiter was back with three tall glasses filled with frosty black beer, and one normal sized glass of water. We each got our drink and a menu, then the waiter kind of wander off while I wasn’t looking. I wonder if that’s a Nen thing too, or just being sneaky. Or I could not be paying attention.

“What’s with all these magical beasts on the menu?” Knuckle asked.

“Most of these creatures are under class 3 quarantine. The dead bodies have to go somewhere, so restaurants like these buy them.” Morel said, before flipping through the menu.

Knuckle was the first to try his beer, only to grimace slightly at the drink. It still didn’t stop him from going for a second sip though. I guess it was one of those things were it is both good and bad. I just nursed my water as I watched my two friends drink. Shoot’s reaction was different, instead of grimacing, he kind of hummed.

In the end, I had pasta with some sort of magic lizard based sauce. It was really tasty, I have to admit. Just sweet enough to balance out the sour tinge. Excellent food, even if I couldn’t name half the ingredients they used. Knuckle and Shoot both had some sort of rice dish. Morel had a fish dish, but with some sort of eel that was apparently really hard to catch?

In the end, lunch was much more interesting then I thought it would be. Morel payed for our meals without much ordeal, leaving the three of us to just kind of wait at our table. Shoot and Knuckle were chatting about the beer they had. Knuckle wasn’t a huge fan, but saw the appeal. Shoot said he enjoyed it.

Before long, we managed to get going. The path to the docks was more occupied then on the way to the restaurant. It was nice to hear the sounds of people milling about and just living. The boat was old, the wood showing it’s colour under the seal or stain or whatever. The mast was solid and seemed to have five sails.

Three of the sails were small and white, layered almost on top of each other on a series of ropes going from the tip of the ship to the main mast. Then there was a brown sail attached to a long pole going backwards off the bottom of the mast and then reaching up and attaching to the rope leading from the back end of the boat to the end of the mast.

“Okay kids, let’s get started.” Morel said, giving us a wide smile. We all clambered up the little wooden plank to look at the floor of the ship. The wood was nice and solid, with the floor plan being like 7 metres long, if I had to guess. For it’s length, it was pretty narrow, only a couple metres long at it’s widest point.

“First lesson, this is the main deck.” Morel began, “The aft is the rear of the ship, and the bow is the front. While sailing, left is port, and right is starboard.”

“What about all these ropes?” Knuckle asked, pointing to the half dozen ropes attaching the mast to either the bac- aft of the ship or the bow.

“We call them lines on ships.” Morel said, considering them. “They are tied down to keep the sails and mast in position. Okay so the sail aft of the mast is the mainsail.”

“What about the ones forward of it?” I asked. I bounded over to the consider the tightly bound sails. The bindings kept them nice and slim to the lines. Looking close, they also had material at what I had to assume was the bottom of the sail. It was that rod that was brought close to the main line.

“They are the jibs. From aft to fore we have a forestay sail, an inner jib and an outer jib.” Morel said. “Now, pay attention. I’m going to show you how to reef and unreef the sails. Normally the mainsail and the forestay sail will stay unreefed. So reefing a sail is to reduce it’s surface area. Now come here Gaige, you try this first.”

Each of us got to reef, then unreef each of the sails on our own. It was a lot of work with the lines and other ropes. Fun though. Unlike bigger ships, this one was “fore and aft rigged”, according to Morel, that meant that all the sails were in a line from bow to aft. What that meant was that all the sails were in a line and so it was annoying to work with the jibs.

Before long though, Morel cleared us to go. So we set the forestay(which was the rope going to the top of the mast apparently) sail and the main sail. We didn’t need the speed or control of the other two jibs right now, so Morel got us to leave them reefed. Knuckle was on the rudder, the little post at back that controlled the direction of the ship.

Shoot and I were on standby to unfurl the inner jib when we got into open waters. Morel wanted us to practice some medium speed sailing by feel rather than instruction. What that meant was that Morel wasn’t going to physically touch anything unless we were in danger. Instead he was going to instruct us on how to sail while we followed.

Soon, we were out of the little bay and into the sea proper. The open expanse of water, with the little distant view of land, was breathtaking. The wind was quiet, as far as I could tell. With our two sails out, we were slowly sailing with the wind. Knuckle walked over to join us in the middle of the Deck, just watching the open ocean. A handful of boats were sailing, but almost all of them were huge with like three masts.

“Okay. Time to get started.”


	3. Chapter 3

The waters were calm for our first sailing experience. That’s probably good. I was on the helm right now, with Shoot and Knuckle managing the sails. With the mainsail and forestay sail out, we were moving at a steady pace down the small bay. Morel was off by the side of the ship, holding his large pipe to his lips.

“Going with the wind like this, is called running, or running ahead of the wind.” Morel explained. “The points of sail are all based around the direction of the wind. When we sail, I’m not going to use port or starboard for directions, because the effects of turning port or starboard depends on the point of sail we are in. Except for while we are running.”

“Instead, I’ll say head up or bear away. To head up is to turn into the wind. To bear away is to turn with the wind, that is closer to running.” Morel said, a small trail of his smoke aura leaking from his lips. “Right now, we are gull winging. That is when we have the mainsail on one side and the jib on the other. We only do this while running.”

“Okay, we are going to head up to port.” Morel said, standing properly. “First, we are gull winging, so Shoot! Rotate the mainsail!”

“On it!” Shoot shouted, using his Nen hands to heave the ropes. Slowly, the mainsail rotating around the mast before it was behind the jib.

“Gaige, head up to port!” Morel said.

“Yes!” I shouted back, pulling on the rudder. The ship slowly shifted it’s heading towards port. The ship began to rock a little more than I was good with.

“Knuckle, unreef the inner jib!” Morel commanded.

“Sensei!” Knuckle said, before he dashed over and released the second jib. Almost as soon at it was out, the ship stabilized.

“Okay, now we are reaching. Any angle from running to close hauled is a reach.” Morel said. He came over to sit at the back with me, calling the other two over. “Notice how the mainsail is reaching wide. That’s a trick to that this is the broad reach. As we get closer to true wind, we will pull in the angle on the mainsail.”

“So how do we head more?” Shoot asked.

“You pull the mainsail closer to the fore and aft line. When you are sailing ninety degrees to the wind, it’s a good rule of thumb to have the sail at forty five degrees to the heading of the ship. Beam reach, as it’s called, is the fasted point of sail.” Morel said.

“What about ‘close-hauled’?” I asked.

“Close-hauled is the closest angle to the wind. Most sailing ships can manage 45 degrees, and I don’t want to push this ship,” Morel said. “You bring the mainsail as tight as possible.”

“Wait about the outer jib?” Knuckle asked. “We still have it reefed.”

“We’ll use that in storms and poor weather to help stabilize the ship.” Morel said, “Now I think that’s enough chit chat. I need to make you three into proper sailors by nightfall.”

So we went around the bay, trading off positions as Morel saw fit. We each went from running to close-hauled at least twice, once controlling the rudder and once manipulating the mainsail. If I had to say so, I think Shoot was the best at it. Heck, he could probably do it all on his own, considering his hand Nen technique.

Eventually, the sun ran low and Morel deemed us to be entirely passable sailors. So we worked together with him to get the ship back to dock. It was actually a lot harder to get back to dock than it was to leave, mostly because the wind was coming straight from the shore. So he had to teach us how to tack. It was this cool technique to cross over from one side close-hauled to the other, which let us get to dock by going in a zigzag pattern.

Once we got there, Morel loaded the space below deck with a couple crates of rations and replacement ship parts. In the end, the area bellow deck had enough extra space to hang three hammocks. Once we finished stocking, Morel had us set sail immediately. Our objective was a small archipelago that was close to ancient trade roots.

“Why are we going after treasures? I thought you were a sea hunter.” I asked Morel, relaxing against the rail looking out to the starry night. Both of the others were below deck sleeping. I wasn’t tired and Morel was going to sleep in the morning. Something about using the stars to navigate or something.

“I have people doing some research for me, so I thought we would take the opportunity to make some quick cash. Besides, it’s about time you came on a hunting expedition with us.” Morel said, leaning against the opposite rail, with his big pipe.

“What! But I’m not a hunter? Or can you give licences out? Was this the hunter exam thing all along?”

“Gaige, you’re my student. Of course I would take you on the job, it’s the best place to learn.” Morel blew out a small rabbit of his smoke, and it bounce around the deck a bit before snuggling up to me.

“Another nen thing?” I asked, petting the little creature. It’s pelt was solid smoke, and had this springy texture.

“A nen beast.” My back stiffened. “Gaige, you’ve had a terrible experience with nen. I can’t deny that you’ll have to deal with some trauma to get past that.”

“I’m doing fine.” I said, feeling my jaw tighten.

“Gaige.” Morel said, giving me this stare through his sunglasses. “I know about yesterday.”

My body slumped as the energy just bled out of me. “I’m fine.”

“Why don’t you go to sleep, and we can talk in the morning.” Morel said, giving me one of those confusing smiles. Like he was sad, but doesn’t want to look sad.

“Okay”.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

We’ve been at sea for about a week when we get to the first location. It’s a couple kilometres off some sort of rock breaching the surface of the water. Morel got us to lower anchor while he stripped off his shirt and glasses. Once we had ourselves anchored, Morel dove into the waters. That was about an hour ago. At first, we were all on alert, making sure nothing goes wrong.

Then we got bored.

“So, how does it feel to have all those hands?” I asked, lying down in the middle of this ship.

“Like I just have extra hands?” Shoot said. “The tactile feeling maps itself normally.”

“No no, like how does it feel to control?” I said, watching the clouds overhead.

“Oh, um.” One of the hands just floats over to pat my head. “It feels like I’m pushing and pulling on lines that trace the hand.”

“Huh. Neat.”

“Hey Gaige, why don’t you continue your Nen training?” Knuckle said, over at the fore of the ship.

“I guess.” I said, suppressing the spike of anxiety the thought caused. My eyes drifted shut as I turned my attention inward. The world shrank to the subtle rock of the ship, the dull cries of seabirds, and the breath of my two friends. With each rock port, I pulled my focus in. Then with each rock starboard I let my attention wander outward.

There was a ghost of a sensation that pulled against my shifting attention. As I scanned outward, something inside pulled inward. As I focused on my core, the tickle flooded out. My breath shifted to match the feeling of what must be my aura. In and out, my breath came. With it, the subtle flow of my aura traced a series of tiny channels in my body. Then the aura would always hit my closed aura nodes and ebb inward.

Except for my eyes. The aura flowed out into the air, disappearing from my senses the moment it got to far away. With each wave out, a small fraction of my aura wafted into the air and was lost. What an odd feeling, to lose this strange energy. Either way, I refocused my attention. The last month apparently was worth it, because I could now feel my own aura.

“Hey, Knuckle?” I asked.

“Yeah Gaige?” Knuckle’s voice sounded muffled. He must be bellow deck.

“What’s the next step after finding my aura?”

“Trying to gain control of your aura nodes.” Knuckle said. “That’s the part that normally takes forever. At least to do safely.”

“Wait, there is a method to do this faster?” I said, jolting upright.

Knuckle popped his head out of the trapdoor leading to below deck. “Wait, wait. It’s not something you actually want.”

“Why?” I asked. “Wait, first, where’s Shoot?”

“Shoot’s taking a nap. It’s been about eight hours since you started meditating.” Knuckle answered, slowly climbing back up from below deck. “I was just grabbing a bite of food. Want some?”

A vicious hunger rose up at the mention. “Yes!”

“Here, it’s beef jerky.” Knuckle said, passing me a small bag and a small flask. “Water to go with it.”

“Thanks.” I said, before tearing into the bag. The jerky was fine, a good mix of salty and tender without being overbearing. “You haven’t explained why the faster method of getting Nen wasn’t a good idea.”

“Right, well listen closely. I don’t want to repeat myself.” Knuckle said, taking on a more stern tone. “It’s a really stupid idea, because the other method is to just force aura into your body from one of us. It can cripple you, and your control of your aura will suffer as well.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, it’s very stupid, so I don’t want to hear you complaining about going about it the slow way.” Knuckle said, staring down at me.

“Thank you for caring Knuckle.”

“Finish your drink. Morel should be back up any minute now.” Knuckle said. On his way to the helm, he reached over and messed up my hair. I pouted at him, but got up and stretched. My spine cracked in a wonderful cacophony of sound. The sky was nearing dusk, as one of those orange sky lines. I let myself smile as I stared out at the open waters.

In the distance, there were a pair of larger ships. They were so far away that all I could see were specks. A couple dull thumps reached my ears from what I assume to be a crash. Odd, I thought it was easy to avoid other ships. Maybe bigger ships are less manoeuvrable? Oh hey, the smaller ship was sinking. The glare from the setting sun made it hard to see.

“Hey Knuckle, I think a ship is sinking over there. Do you have the looking glass?”

“It’s a monocular.” Knuckle said, before stepping up beside me and following my hand. “Yeah, there are holes going through the hull. It’s going down.”

“Should we help them?” I asked.

“Of course we should!” Knuckle shouted. I lunged, catching the looking glass as Knuckle bolted below deck to wake up Shoot. I took the brass device to my left eyes, playing with the telescopic thing until I could actually see the ship. The larger ship had it’s sails reefed, with a bunch of lines connecting it to the hull of the smaller ship.

Already, people were jumping from the larger ship to help the poor sailors. I watched as the captain of the big ship roared some command dramatically. The crew of the larger ship were storming below deck of the smaller one. One of the crew members was staying in the corner near the rigging. Was he stuck? The orange glare off one of the larger ship’s crew’s blade seemed to suggest that.

My blood froze as the armed man instead cut the crew member down the front. Mechanically, I looked at the rigging of the bigger ship. Up above the crow’s nest, there hung a familiar black flag. A flag with a skull and crossbones. A pirate flag. Behind me I heard Shoot clamber up above deck behind Knuckle. I let the looking glass down from my face a turned to see them.

“It’s too late.”

“What?” Knuckle said, “They only just began to sink. On this cutter we should be able to get there before any of them drown!”

“Knuckle, enough.” Shoot said, “What’s going on Gaige?”

“They’re pirates. The crew of the smaller ship is already being slaughtered.” My voice was odd. Even and like it was miles away from my own ears.

“Oh no.” I heard Knuckle speak, but my attention was on the immediate hug that Shoot wrapped me up in. His one armed grip held be tight.

“Knuckle, can you lift anchor?” Shoot asked.

“Sure. On it.”

“Okay, according to Morel, the nearest island is a couple hours west of here.” Shoot said. The familiar tingle of aura spread in my senses, as he reached out with his nen hands. Wait, west?

“Isn’t that directly towards the pirates.” I said, feeling fuzzy around my arms.

“We are in a cutter, there’s no way they can keep up.” Knuckle said. He was already unreefing the mainsail.

“Don’t worry Gaige, we’ll be at a broad reach. They are close-hauled right now, in the wrong direction.” Shoot said, dragging me over to the helm.

“Do you want me to work the tiller?” I asked, leaning out of the hug.

“Can you handle it?” Shoot asked.

“Yeah, I can do this.” I said. “Wait, what about Morel?”

“What about him?” Knuckle asked.

“He’s still underwater and is expecting us to be here when he gets back.”

“Why do you think he gave us directions to the nearest Island?” Shoot replied. “He knows that we’ll try to get there if we get split up.”

“Okay. Shoot could you captain us? Knuckle can manage the mainsail alone.” I said, giving Shoot a smile. “Besides, you are better at Hatsu so if we need to fight you can handle that.”

“I would rather not to have to fight at all.” Shoot said. “Bear away!”

As a well oiled machine, the mainsail adjusts as the ship turns with the wind. The water below churned as we broke through the waves. We were going to have to cross through open ocean in front of the pirate ship. The salty spray pulled my messy hair behind as we cut through the waves. I let my eyes wander to the pirate frigate.

I couldn’t see them over the distance, but I got a faint chill in my back. I snapped my eyes forward. Knuckle was waiting on the port side, ready to adjust the mainsail. Shoot, with his impressive height, leaned off the mast. The wind was pulling both of their hairstyles into a mess. I smothered a snort at their appearances.

The ship was a fast little bugger. We were eating kilometres in a flash. Soon, the pirate ship was closer, less that a kilometre away. I could see the lines of cannons dotting the hull, the individual bodies carting cargo from the sinking ship. Knuckle was tense by the mainsail, his aura bubbling just under the surface. Shoot was more relaxed by comparison, if only just. His hand gripped hard on the mast as we sailed past the pirate ship.

With a baited breath, we listened to the wind as we cut into the waves. When shouts didn’t wash past us, we relaxed. The others more than I did. My shoulders were still tense for minutes following the close encounter. Slowly, I let myself look back at the ship now fading into the distance. It was alone on the waters, the other ship now sunk below the waves.

Pulling the looking glass to my eye, I focused on the distant ship. Atop the deck, they had a line of prisoners. Surrounding them were a gaggle of pirates with weapons drawn. Slowly they went down the line, asking a question. At first, they left the prisoners be. Then, second from the last, the captain swung with his scimitar and beheaded the young woman.

“Gaige.” Knuckle’s voice spooked me, to the point were I almost through the looking glass at his face.

“Huh, yeah Knuckle?” I asked, feeling numb.

“Could you pass me the monocular?” He asked, holding a hand out. When I reached forward to give it back to him, I saw that my hands were shaking. “Here, why don’t you come below deck and lay down?”

“Sure.” I said, feeling my body walk almost as if I was just watching from a distance. Knuckle’s hand was firmly on my shoulder as I walked down to the trap door and walked down the small steps. He didn’t let up until I was sitting on the second of the hammocks.

“Hey Gaige,” Knuckle said, sitting across from me on his own hammock. “The world is a pretty brutal place.”

“Yeah.” I said, moving to lay back on the hammock. “It has to be doesn’t it. Otherwise we wouldn’t need Nen.”

“I guess that’s one way to look at it.” Knuckle said. He paused for a moment, then another. As the silence became awkward, he finally continued talking. “You should go to sleep. You’ve been awake for a long time, and all this stress can’t be helping.”

“Okay, yeah, that makes sense.” I said. I allowed my eyes to close, and focused on the rock of the ship. With each rock port, I breathed out. With each rock starboard, I breathed in. The steady rock helped bring me down. With each breath, the small surge of my aura’s flow became more vivid. I let the small eddies of that strange energy drift me to sleep.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Of all things to wake me, it was the sounds of Knuckle cooking that brought me back. With a yawn, I forced myself from the hammock. Unlike while we were at sea, the boat was stationary. With a hand over my eyes, I climbed above deck to look at the small island we had run up on. On the white beach, Knuckle and Shoot were tending to a fire.

From the beach, the island peaked a touch with a small grassy centre, less than a dozen metres across. A pair of trees were hanging off the left edge of the plains, giving the two shade from the bright morning sun. With a hop, I got onto the white sand beach. Between my toes the sand was cool and damp. Wait, where did my shoes go?

“Gaige.” Shoot’s voice called out over the sand. “Good morning. Want some warm food?”

“Sure!” I said, moving to jog the twenty metres they were from the ship. As I got closer, I saw the small pan of sausage and felt my hunger return with a fury. “Did we get away cleanly?”

Both of them shared a look, but it was Knuckle who answered me; “They didn’t even notice us, it looks like.”

“Great! How long until the food is ready?” I asked, letting my body thump onto the sand beside Shoot.

“A couple more minutes.” Knuckle said.

Shoot used his hand to comb through my hair. “Are you doing alright?”

“Hm?” I paused for a moment. “I guess? I mean, I still feel sick when I think of how those pirates executed their prisoners.”

“Ah, so that’s what you saw.” Knuckle said.

“Yeah. But I think I can manage.”

“That’s good. Now get up, the food is ready.”

I scrambled upright, only to have a small plate with a pair of sausages shoved into my hands. The fork was handed more gently by one of Shoot’s nen hands. Remembering my manners, I said thank you. Then it was time to stuff my face of nice warm food. It’s only been like a day and a half and warm food feels so heavenly.

Shoot gave me another look, before turning to address Knuckle. “Do you want to check for Morel again? I’ll handle the fire.”

“Sure, I’ll be back in a couple minutes.”

Then Shoot and I were alone. I let the silence linger as I ate my food, but he just kept looking at me. When I tried to meet his eyes, my gaze lingered on the rat’s nest that his normally refined purple ponytail had become. Shoot jumped when I broke down into giggles. His face morphed into a concerned look, so I waved him off.

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just your hair.”

Shoot just stared at me for a second. Then he let a tiny smile shine on his face. “I suppose I must look pretty silly.”

“Yeah.”

“So are you making much progress towards you Nen?”

“Well, I felt my aura for the first time. It kind of reminds me of the waves.”

“Really?” Shoot asked, stealing another sausage from the pan. “I guess that with your close encounter, you got exposed to some aura.”

“Does that really have any effect?” I asked, copying Shoot’s theft. “Like the fast way of unlocking your aura nodes?”

“It can. Outside of being taught, or learning it through spirituality, being attacked by aura is the only other way to learn nen.” Shoot said.

“Neat.” I took a glance at Knuckle. He was precariously balanced on the top of one of the trees, using the looking glass. “Why is Knuckle’s pompadour still fine, while both of our hairdos are a mess?”

“Knuckle carries a comb inside his jacket.” Shoot said. “So I assume he just took the time to clean up his hair.”

“Oh, not another nen thing?” I said, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice.

“It would be ridiculous to create a Hatsu for that. There is a limit to the number of Hatsu you can have and still be effective.”

“That makes sense I guess. What’s the limit?”

“It depends on your own strength and will grow with you.”

“Guys!” Knuckle shouted. “The pirates have found us!”

“What!” I shouted back. “How?”

Knuckle slid down the tree, bounding over in a couple of moments. “I don’t know. Come on, let’s get packed.”

We jumped into action. The fire was left burning as the three of us grabbed the pan and the couple of other things grabbed from below deck. In moments, Shoot and Knuckle had already shoved their load below deck and were pushing the ship off the shore. I splashed through the shallow water before leaping onto the deck.

I was already unreefing the mainsail when the other two leapt onto the deck. Shoot must have ran for the helm, because Knuckle was unreefing the inner jib when I move ahead of the mast to work on the stay sail. The wind quickly tugged at the sails and pulled the ship deeper into the sea. When I finally got the stupid jib to unreef, I snuck a look over towards where the pirate were.

The ship was still in the distance. A little more than half a kilometre, far enough that I couldn’t really tell what they were doing. Not with the lower height of our cutter. A distant boom echoed out as the bow launched a ball at us. It was bearing port of us, not very likely to hit. True enough, the shot landed a couple dozen metres to the side of us. In the back of my head, I felt the muted surge of panic overwhelm me.

“They’re shooting their cannons at us!” I shouted, turning to look at Shoot. My neck protested the snapping movement.

“Take the tiller, keep us going into a beam reach!” Shoot said. He jumped from his position onto the back rail of the boat. His one real had braced against the backstay. In my scramble forward, I missed whatever he did. The tiller was smooth and warm under my grip.

“Knuckle, bring in the mainsail! We are heading up!” I shouted. Behind me, the familiar tickle of Shoot’s aura traced across my back. The waters were relatively clear ahead. Clouds stained the sky grey, but we had little choice.

“On it!” Knuckle said. He jumped from the bow of the ship to the mainsail. As he heaved on the lines, I let the tiller pull the ship to port. The water sprayed as we cut through the waves. Each sent a shock through the ship, eating our building speed. Our mainsail tightened and the winds pulled at us faster now. The tiller still shook in my grip, but our ship was going to make it out to sea.

With a steady grip, I glanced behind me. Shoot had his Hotel Rafflesia floated beside him, but my focus was on the three hands hovering out behind our ship. Shoot’s green aura wafted off of them, as he held them between us and the pirates. Another shot rang out, sending a small steel ball arcing towards us. This time, they were aiming properly.

I felt my panic build, as the shot neared. My legs froze as the ball’s features became visible. A small wrought iron sphere with scorch marks. One of Shoot’s hands spiked the shot into the sea. The waves from the impact buoyed us forward ever so slightly. I turned my head back, trusting Shoot to handle the cannon fire.

The sparse sounds of the cannons grew more and more faded as we sailed deeper into the building storm. Eventually, the pirates fell under the horizon and we were free from them. Looking up at the dark grey clouds above, I felt my stomach sink. How much of us getting away was because of this storm?

“Do either of you know where we are?” Shoot asked, stepping down to the deck.

Silence answered him as Knuckle and I looked at each other. Well. I suppose we have another problem to solve now.


	4. Chapter 4

Sheets of rain were falling before we knew it. I shoved my hair back behind my head, before looking up at the storm clouds. Already the water was pooling on the deck and making everything slippery. The ship began to rock in the winds, throwing me back over the deck. My feet slid on the deck as I forced myself to secure the door below deck.

The trapdoor leading below deck locked with a solid clunk. It was quiet compared to the heavy rain and howling winds that plagued up. I bolted from where I was to the bow of the ship. The wave ahead of us was already growing too high for comfort. I spun in place and unreefed the outer jib. Almost immediately, the crazy rocking evened out and we just had to deal with the waves and wind.

“Gaige! Grab onto something!” Knuckle shouted, his aura a beacon of light in the darkness. Without hesitation, I hugged the rail with all my might. Even with my non zero strength, my grip slid over the water.

“Brace!” Shoot called, was the ship crashed into the wave. With a muted thud, a heavy weight smashed down on my back. With a sputtering cough, I forced my heels into the deck. Then it was gone, the only trace of it being the glistening deck and the water drenching all of us.

“Where are we going?” I asked, yelling to the aft of the ship.

“Head up! Close-hauled!” Shoot ordered. Knuckle, at the mainsail, tightened the line that held the pole lining the bottom of the sail straight, the boom. The entire ship leaned into the turn, and I slid across the deck. Only timely dropping to my knee prevented me from being clotheslined on the forestay. Instead, I managed to grab the opposite railing just as the ship righted itself.

“Another wave!” I called, moving to hold the railing with both hands. Knuckle was on the opposite side of the mainsail, but I heard him say _something_ in response. Before I could ask what, the wave was already crashing down on us. My face ate deck and pain bloomed into focus. It took a moment before I could move, and by the time I got up, another wave crashed down on us.

The floor under me swam in my bleary sight, and I slipped. I tensed, but the flare of pain never came. Before I could look up, I hit the water hard. My breath escaped me, then I was lost under the waves. Salty water pounded into my lungs, and panic built up. Burning flared as I flailed my legs, but I couldn’t break the waves. I was getting pulled down. No, no, no nonononono-

My arm got caught in something tight. The pain was terrible, but then I was above water. Agony tore apart my lung as I coughed. Air returned to my lungs just as I was tossed back onto the deck. The world span as I rolled over into a kneel. A bolt of lightning lit up the sky, highlighting Shoot’s grim face staring at me.

“Gaige, I need you to repair the outer jib.” He said, throwing a replacement sail at me. I fumbled it.

“On it!” I shouted, carefully walking to the bow of the ship. Coughs still racked me, but I had to help the guys.

Knuckle helped me past the boom, but he had to run back and re-tighten it. I slid as another rock shook the boat, but I managed to grab the forestay in my offhand. The line was a nice stabilizer to get me up at the end of the jibs. The outer jib was a small triangle of heavy canvas, but it had ripped straight off the forestay.

Slowly, I spread out my feet. With a more steady footing, I unfolded the new jib it my hand. The canvas was an awful neon pink, but it had the proper clasps to hook onto the forestay and the supporting lines. The ship rocked again, but I reached up to the top anchor point and clipped the top corner into place. Immediately, the sail ripped itself out of my hand. It flapped backwards, just out of reach.

A couple shuffling steps brought me closer to the flailing jib, but another rock sent me tumbling down and eating yet more of the deck. Even as I was leaning on the rail to stand up, I felt the guys’ aura spike. I desperately hugged the railing as another wave blew over our ship. The dull pain reignited under the weight of it all, but I forced my body to hold on tighter.

Then it was gone again. With a burst of daring, I leapt to snag the outer jib. Somehow, I managed to land without losing my footing, meaning I could snap the lower anchor point onto the forestay. The little boom that held the sail out snapped into my face, but at least that meant it was easy to grab it and clip the final anchor point of the jib.

The little piece of wood tried to pull itself free with the power of the sail, but I kept it tightly held. The line was loose, but it seemed whole. So I just re-threaded the boom and tightened it to rig of lines that held the other jibs. With the outer jib repaired, the ship’s rocking evened out a touch, meaning I didn’t need to hold the lines just to stay standing.

“Good job Gaige!” Shoot shouted over the wind.

“Brace!” Knuckle called. I immediately held the rail and a line in a death grip. The blast of water punched me, hitting the wind out of me. My legs flew off the deck, but with burning arms, I pulled myself through the wave. My fingers cramped and began to loosen. No matter how hard I willed my hands to tighten, they began to give way.

Then it was over. I flopped onto the deck, still holding the railing with all my might. My lungs heaved in the salty sea air, a balm over the burning. My feet pushed into the deck, slowly lifting me up to a half crouch. Knuckle was fighting with the mainsail, trying to keep it tight in the powerful winds. Leaning around the jibs, I could see Shoot tilling the boat. Or ship, whatever.

My lungs heaved as we moved further through the storm. It wasn’t over, not really, but we were at least passed the giant waves. Sailing wasn’t smooth, but I didn’t have to brace every other couple of minutes. Instead, we just rocked and dealt with some choppier waters. It got to the point where I was comfortable walking over to the aft of the ship and hanging with Shoot.

Turns out, having Ten meant that they didn’t even need to brace. I was the only one who had any trouble with the waves. It was so awesome. So we just kept on sailing, and the storm grew quieter all the while. In the end, Knuckle and I were chatting by the mainsail, just sitting and chilling. It was nice to listen and just stretch out my sore, abused muscles.

“So you ran, on foot, from the cops for a whole day?” I triple checked. “Like they were actively chasing you and you still manage to keep a way for that long?”

“I’m not exaggerating!” Knuckle said, glaring daggers at me.

“And you didn’t have Nen? Like at all.”

“Why won’t you believe me?” He asked.

“Because it sounds crazy! Like I can run for a week straight, I had to,” I paused, suppressing a shiver. “To survive that nen beast. But I can’t run faster than cars for an entire day!”

“You can already run for a week? When you get bigger, you’ll run faster. If you want to train speed we can, since you’re endurance is much better than I assumed.” Knuckle said, before reaching over and shifting my stretching arm. It burnt much more, but I assume it’s a better stretch.

“I thought we were doing strength though?”

“We can if you want, but being faster isn’t bad either.” Knuckle said, drinking from his flask of water.

“Which is better though?” I asked, tilting my head as I pull my arm across my chest.

“Gaige.” Knuckle gave me a look. “One’s not _better_ , it’s about what you want to do. In a perfect world you are both strong and fast.”

“Oh.” There was a pause for a couple minutes before I spoke again. “Can I get back to you?”

“Sure, it’s not like we’ll be doing much training until we hit land. Then we have to meet with Morel, somewhere.” Knuckle sighed. “This is a disaster.”

“I mean, you guys had contingencies. Right?”

Knuckle didn’t say anything. In fact, he just took a long, steady drink out of his flask. I felt dread flow from head to toe as I watched him drink. Drink and not take a pause to answer me. My stomach clenched in echoes of anxiety as I just watched. My mouth just drifted open as I stared at Knuckle.

“No......” I breathed. “You aren’t saying you don’t have a plan.”

“I’m not saying it?” Knuckle offered, giving me a hesitant smile.

The wind was picking up again, and it wasn’t wise to walk across the ship when I was this... on edge, but I got up and walked to sit with Shoot. My feelings washed away, leaving me feeling terrible, but not on the edge of panic, so that’s nice. The ship sort of rocked as the mainsail caught the wind then I was slammed in the chest and sent tumbling into the ocean.

This time, I managed to swim myself up to the surface, so that was nice. Knuckle’s echoing laugh was less than nice. I swam over to the side of the ship and pulled myself over the railing. My landing was a wet plop that only got Knuckle to laugh harder. Shoot’s quieter chuckles cut deeper. I pulled all the spite I could to lift my head and stare at the muscle head.

“Don’t you have a line to be replacing?”

They only laughed harder.

-0-0-0-0-0-

A shout sent me from sleep to alert in seconds. Adrenaline flooded my system as I tumbled to the ground and tried to find a path to run. Slowly, reality filtered back in. I was on a boat. Overhead, Shoot and Knuckle were talking on deck. Their voices were quiet now, normal conversation I guess. The dimness faded slightly as my eyes adjusted. Carefully walking towards the ladder to above deck, I felt the ship rocking. Nothing like the storm, so we weren’t in any danger. What had the shouting been about?

I poked my head through the trapdoor, the heavy wood pressing my messy hair flat. Shoot and Knuckle were at the bow of the ship, peering at the setting moon. The wood was cool was I pulled myself above deck. The small thud of the door closing caught there attention. When they peered over their shoulders, they waved me over. My eyes caught a small green smudge in the horizon, almost hidden by the darkness of the night.

“We found land?” I asked, sparing Shoot a look.

“Yes, I’m surprised you saw it immediately.” Shoot said, giving me a proud little smile.

“What do you mean? It’s right there.” I said. Knuckle had a small huff on my other side.

“You just have good eyes.” Shoot said, before shooing Knuckle back to the tiller. The two of us stand on the bow, watching the sky lighten over the next hour or so. Knuckle remained back by the aft, keeping us sailing the right way. Some time overnight, the guys moved the sails into a beam reach. The wind blew my hair.

“Gaige, are you feeling okay?”

I blink. “Why do you ask?”

“You have terrible bruises down from your chin spreading across most of your chest.”

“I do?” I looked down at my shirtless chest. Greenish bruises bloomed on my skin, looking sickly next to the light brown flesh. Gently, I pressed against them. Small twitching pain echoed up. “They don’t feel too bad. I guess they healed while I slept?”

“That’s good.” Shoot said, looking into the middle distance. “When we hit land, I want to work with you on achieving Ten. I don’t want you to get seriously hurt.”

Blood rushed up to my cheeks, and I flinched my head to the side. “Let’s do it.”

“Shoot! Can you trim our sails a bit?” Knuckle called, and Shoot wove back. Then I was alone at the bow. The other two chatted while I lingered alone. A wash of introspection pushed down on me as land grew on the horizon. It’s been almost half a year since that _thing_ walked into our little town. A shudder shot through my back.

Four months of Nen training, five months since meeting Morel, Shoot and Knuckle. I went from lanky and tiny, into a muscled powerhouse. Well, relative to other children from home. So much had changed, and more still is coming. I took a breath of the salty sea air. It was a lifetime ago that I stole to eat, and now here I was. Apprentice of a hunter and now a sailor. Was it regret or nostalgia that snuck up on me?

A smile bloomed onto my face. It didn’t matter, did it?

“Well captain, how can I help!?” I shouted back at Knuckle, energy surging high.

“Come take the tiller, I need to take a piss.” Knuckle said.

“Language Knuckle, Gaige is only thirteen.” Shoot said. Not that there was any heat in his words.

“Come on, I grew up in a street gang.” I said, “That is far from the worst thing I’ve heard. Just treat me like you would anyone else.”

“Sure kid.” Knuckle said, sticking his tongue out at Shoot. “Now seriously, grab the tiller.”

So I was on the tiller until we managed to come up on the white sandy beach. It blended into a soft green meadow for another fifty or so metres. After that, it was all woods going up to the small peak. As we got closer, I picked out signs of small furry creatures. Maybe cats of some kind? Anyway, I flicked my eyes up and down the shore as we ran the boat onto the sands.

Knuckle helped Shoot lug a crate of supplied out of the cargo hold, so I went about reefing the sails. By the time the ship was all looked after, Shoot and Knuckle were both building a small fire pit out of loose stones. So I just hopped down from the deck and jogged over. Shoot had left, presumably to grab wood, just before I caught up, but I didn’t bother him.

Instead I plopped down beside Knuckle and just began speaking; “So, like, you said it took you half a year to achieve Ten?”

“Yeah it did, took me five months just to feel my aura.” Knuckle gripped. “Almost as bad as developing a Hatsu.”

“And your Hatsu is...?”

“I don’t have one yet.” Knuckle said, his visage darkening.

“Well neither do I, so you’re in good company!” I immediately retort. It worked, because now Knuckle was smiling, just a bit. “So I think I feel my aura when I meditate, what do I do next?”

“You have to open your aura nodes and get it out of your body.”

I give Knuckle my best deadpan stare. “Obviously, I mean how do I do _that_.”

“Oh!” He laughed. He messed my hair up, but he did explain; “I can’t really explain it in physical terms. Best I can explain it is that you push your aura out against the confines of your body. On the other hand, to me, it feels a lot like blinking. Sort of a shudder, then it just slides open.”

I made a non-committal noise and stared at on of my hands. Ignoring the calluses, it was a very normal hand. Not too long, nor particularly misshapen. Beneath it, I knew there was untapped power. For all my intellectual knowledge, I still couldn’t feel my aura like this. With aura, Knuckle can fell trees in a single blow. A feat he probably couldn’t do without Nen, but I speculate.

“I’m going to meditate,” I said, and received farewell. I walked a couple minutes away and sitting down cross legged. My eyes fluttered closed as I began to focus on my breathing. I forced down a stab of anxiety and focused on the flow of air in and out. A couple hundred breaths passed until I feel that flow again. Like a tickle in the back of your throat, the flow was monopolizing my attention.

In and out, breath and aura synced. The boiling power flowed smoothly through my bones. With force of will, I sent the aura flowing clockwise around my extremities. Under my skin, my aura pushed against the very edge of my body. Almost a second skin, only below instead of above. Each small eddy snagged at the rest of the flow and sent dull pain back into the aura itself.

Through grit teeth, I forced each snag straight. It certainly didn’t force my aura out, but it eased the burden of moving it. Each small disruption in my flow addressed, I felt more at peace. Slowly, ever so slowly, I moved my hand. Underneath the thin layer of skin, my aura lit with motion. A frown grew on my face as I stared at my hand. Not a single glimmer of aura slipped through my body. I felt the tingle of aura just under my skin, which was the absolute worst part. I could feel the power, the spirit under my skin and still it was lost to me. Frustration spilled into my heart, souring my aura with its angry tint.

A hand pressed down on my shoulder. Despite myself, I jumped out of my skin. With a snap, the feel of my aura left me. I turned my head to see Shoot nudging me. “Hey, we have supper ready, come eat.”

“Sure” My body was quick to remind me that I hadn’t ate anything in the last... half a day? With a couple quick steps, I caught up to Shoot; “Hey, how long was I meditating for?”

“At least five hours or so.” Shoot said. Knuckle was beside the fire and had a good dozen or so fish fried over the fire.

“Any luck Gaige?” Knuckle asked, handing me the first fish, it was a nice golden colour and had herbs of some variety generously rubbed on the meat. Shoot used one of his hands to grab one as he sat across the fire from Knuckle.

“Not really. I can feel my aura when I meditate, but it doesn’t want to leave my body. It’s so _stupid_.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Knuckle said, grabbing another fish for himself. “It’s normal for it to take awhile.”

“So what’s the plan for tomorrow?” I ask, before biting into the fish. It was dry, but the seasoning at least gave it a bit more flavour. A cook, Knuckle was not.

“We need to discover where we are.” Shoot said, grabbing the map from a pile of stuff. “So two of us will go explore while the last stays behind and gets an actual camp set up.”

“Makes sense.” Knuckle replied. “I can take Gaige and go on a walkabout. Maybe we’ll find some wild game while we’re out there.”

“That would help. Every time we scavenge our meals we will buy us time at sea later.” Shoot nodded. “At least get an idea on what we have on the island. Even if we find out where we are, we’ll need to pick up some supplies. Fresh water is more important though, so remember to find a stream.”

“Shoot, there is a mountain.”

“Just find one. Don’t get distracted before then.”

“Geez! Lay off me,” Knuckle grumbled. Something about it just made me giggle, only to get a dirty look from Knuckle. Which sent me off laughing like a maniac. Then Knuckle was on me, tickling me of all thing! God, what a jerk! Who _tickles_ people.

  



	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Gaige and Knuckle bond while hiking around the island.

Radios were weird. The little black box device that Shoot handed us somehow was able to connect to his radio and allowed us to talk through it. All they said, when I asked, was that they used waves. Except that doesn’t make much sense? How does water move words around? Whatever, I can read about it when we get to a library or something.

“Hey Gaige!” Knuckle yelled, waving me over to the other side of the clearing. The two of us were hiking around the island trying to find water. He was pointing to a small tree, which had these small red berries growing straight off the stem. “These are called omija. They taste great in tea and are supposed to be pretty good for you.”

“Really?” I said, plucking off a berry and plucking it into my mouth. The skin of it was a little waxy, but when I bit into it, it exploded with sour tang. My eye squinted at Knuckle’s stupid grinning face, feeling my entire mouth clench shut. The subtle burn of the sourness leaked down my throat, followed by tears in my eyes. Then is was gone, replaced with a salty sweetness that washed over the tangy bitterness. In moments, my mouth went from sour to sweet enough to rot my teeth.

Knuckle just danced backwards from my clumsy swing, and broke out into laughter. The stupid meanie was too fast for me to catch. I just stuck out my tongue at him and marched off, higher up the mountain. Or hill. Whatever, I stormed off away from Knuckle and his shitty berries.

“Gaige?” Knuckle called out to me. I ignored him, instead looking forward. “Gaige, you can’t actually be mad!”

“Mad!” I shouted back. I heard Knuckles quick steps behind me, so I turned my head when he came up on my right side.

“They are good in tea!” Knuckle yelled, “That doesn’t mean you should just eat them!”

“Why thank you for that wonderful insight!” The roots of the mountain trees were handy little footsteps.

“Gaige come on!”

“Still mad!”

We continued on in silence for a couple minutes, nothing but the echoes of wildlife and a babbling stream to keep us company. In the distance, there were twinkling lights. Almost like glass, or some kind of metal. Then, I felt Knuckle lift me by the back of my shirt. Looking down, past my dangling feet, I saw a sudden cliff and, even farther bellow, a waterfall. I twisted my neck to look at Knuckle, whom was giving me a deadpan stare.

“Oops?”

Knuckle just snorted and placed me back on solid ground. With a nudge, he directed me over to a tree that grew up the cliff face with plenty of roots to grab onto. After double checking that he meant to climb down, I swung myself down. A chuckle rose unbidden when I heard Knuckle choke on air. The tree gave so many whirls of wood to grab that the climb was beyond pedestrian. Nothing like the old mines.

I made it down before Knuckle, but I’m pretty sure that just because he was keeping an eye on me the entire time. At least, it’s not because he’s bad at climbing. The waterfall was louder now that we were at it’s mouth. Carefully I leaned over the edge of this lower cliff face. It was relatively short, like maybe 30 metres at most. Not a comfortable drop, but well within survivable.

“Gaige, could you back off the edge of the fall?” Knuckle asked, farther up stream.

“Sure, but you know it’s not that dangerous right?”

“You don’t have Ten yet Gaige.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m made of glass you know.” I said.

“Just come fill you canteen, we have a ways to go.”

“Fine mom.” Knuckle just rolled his eyes at me. So I came over and splashed his stupid hair. Of course, he didn’t take it laying down. He responded by splashing me back. So I shoved him into the stream. Then he grabbed me and pulled me into the surprisingly deep stream. Our little impromptu fight lasting far, far longer than it had any right to. Until the sun was well past noon and we still had to walk back to our little camp site.

When we got back to camp, Shoot just stared at the two of us. We were still dripping water when we plopped beside the fire. He had fished a couple more fishes for us to eat, and they were mostly done cooking. So we just sat there in silence, allowing the fire to warm us up. Shoot ducked below deck to grab a pair of towels and dry clothe for us. I think he’s my new favourite person.

“I take it you guys found water?”

“Yeah, it’s about an hour inland.” Knuckle said, pointing back in the direction we came from. “Can’t miss it, a huge stream with a waterfall.”

“Great.” Shoot said, “Did you guys happen to find any people?”

“No-” Knuckle began.

“Actually, I think there is a town hidden something like four kilometres from here.” I cut in.

“... Because?” Shoot asked.

“When we were up on the mountain, I saw reflections from the forest.” I said, a little sheepish, “I kind of forgot with the whole, ‘almost fall to my death’ thing.”

“Pardon?” Shoot asked, giving Knuckle a hard look.

“I just didn’t notice the cliff, it’s not a big deal.” I said, grabbing Shoot’s attention. “If it wasn’t for Knuckle, I would have fallen.”

Shoot’s face softened a touch. “Okay, just try and be more careful from now on.”

“Sure.”

“So we’ll go check in on that village tomorrow?” Knuckle said, giving me a brief look of gratitude.

“Sounds like a good plan,” Shoot said, “I’ll go to that stream and fill our supply of fresh water. Now why don’t you go meditate for a couple hours Gaige?”

“Sure.” I said, taking a couple steps from the fire to get some silence. Sitting in a cross legged position, I turned my focus and attention inwards. Finding the rhythm of my breath and using that to anchor my attention. A couple of deep breaths, and my awareness bloomed over my aura. From the flows trapped under my skin to the wisps that escaped from my eyes.

Each breath was another wave of power, motion binding attention to aura. There was aura within me, but this time I focused on the aura outside. The wisps of aura that left me and the beacons of aura that were my friends. Even more insubstantial then the wisps escaping from my eyes, a haze was weeping out of me, escaping through the nodes I had no control over. Even comparing that aura to the trace amounts that left thought my eyes to give me the ability to see aura felt wrong. It was insubstantial, infinitely lesser than the aura kept locked within.

The aura flowed underneath my skin, and each ebb matched another wash of lost aura. The outflow was a seeping flow of power, like blood from a wound. Like those sailors slain by the pirates. The flow of aura quickened with my breath and brought my mind to it. With a forced exhale, I let the thoughts leave my mind and returned to the aura beneath my skin.

\--0--0--0--0--0--0

The woods were muggy. I was fine, but Knuckle’s ridiculous hairdo had seen better days. It was a frizzy mess, and torn through with twigs and spiderwebs. Someone had shoved his head into this giant spiderweb and it got all stuck in his hair. I’m kind of happy that Knuckle’s not really the spiteful kind of guy.

“Kid.”

“Yes Knuckle~” I singsonged back.

“My retribution will be sudden, it will be unexpected, it will be complete.” His voice was dark, and his aura was a black ink that drifted off of him. It was actually kind of intimidating.

“Oh really?” I said, stepping over a log. The ground was getting mucky, sticking to my boots. A sudden premonition came over me.

Then I was face first in the mud.

With an icky plop, I wrenched my head out of the mud. My eyes watered as I wiped the brown black muck off my face. Knuckle was a couple paces ahead, whistling innocently. With a steady step, I rushed to catch Knuckle from behind with a muddy hug. There was a loud whistle, then I was held aloft by my shirt. I twisted my head to stare at Knuckle standing behind me.

“Come on, we are getting close.” He said, “Let’s not look like a pair of buffoons.”

“You shoved me into the mud!”

“Right, because now we look like a pair of shipwrecked civilians.” He said, cutting through some more brush.

“You did it because I messed up your hair.” I retorted.

“What can I say? You inspired me.” Knuckle said, giving me a wide grin.

I grumbled some more, but I did kind of start it. “Wait, why are we pretending to be civilians? You’re an actual hunter.”

“Because you aren’t a hunter and we don’t want someone thinking you can handle what a hunter can.” Knuckle explained, his voice softer then normal.

Before I could retort, the town started abruptly. The woods were clean cut not even twenty metres from the first fence around a ranch. Pigs and Chickens grazed around separate pens, with a couple rows of grain. There were a couple people tending to the animals, with what appeared to be cotton garments. I took a couple steps forward and looked around, eyes wide.

“Hello!” Knuckle shouted from right behind me. I may or may not have shrieked.

“Oh hi there.” An elderly woman said, walking over from gathering eggs. “Where did you lot come in from?”

“We were sailing from an old dock over in the Kakin Kingdom, just getting some fishing done before storm season.” Knuckle laughed, giving the woman a happy grin. “But joke's on us, we got caught it a storm and washed up here.”

“Oh dear.” The woman said, covering her mouth with a hand. “Are you boys alright?”

“We made it out okay,” Knuckle said, “thought if it's not a bother, could we perhaps borrow a map?”

“Oh it's no worry darling.” The woman said, leading them across the fields. “What are your names?”

“I'm Gaige, and this is Knuckle.” I said, forcing my voice into an upbeat cheer.

“I'm Melina, it's nice to meet you boys.” The path turned to a cobbled road, “So does your father know you boys took his boat.”

“I, wha-, why?” I stammered, feeling the blood rush to my feet.

Melina laughed, “I guess he doesn't then. I'm sure your brother will take the blame for you.”

My brother? Did she mean Knuckle!?

“It's not going to be an issue,” Knuckle said, clapping a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll talk to him.”

Was he talking about Morel?

“Such a responsible young man. It warms my heart.” Melina crooned, before moving in a less sentimental tone of voice. “If you boys can work on a larger ship, I'm sure Roderica's crew will take you for a season or two.”

“Uh, I just want to go home?” I ventured, trying, and failing, to sound confident.

“Of course, of course.” Melina said, “But not many ships go to the Kakin Kingdom, not from here at least.”

“No? Where did we even end up then?”

Melina paused to unlatch a gate, before quickly ushering us through. “The island’s called Zealdar, although the city and port is more well known. Ever heard of Zendak?”

That name felt familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on why. Beside me, Knuckle seemed equally lost.

“Oh dear. Well I'm sure Adele will be more than willing to let you guys look at her maps.” She said, leaning over conspiratorially, “Don't tell anyone this, but that girl is a sentimental fool.”

The town was very rustic. Old wood fencing was everywhere. Not just around the animal pens, but lining the road between the outer farm and the village proper. Others were already going to and fro in old linen and cotton clothing. None of it was poorly made, as far as I knew, but it wasn't the silks of the noble courts either. Very provincial, as far as port towns could get.

“I guess you guys trade with the Venti States?” Knuckle asked.

“If you can call it trading.”

“Have they been giving you that much trouble? I thought Venti merchants were supposed to be polite?”

I cut in before Melina could reply. “Doesn't polite just mean being an ass, but getting away with it?”

Knuckle chocked on air, while Melina guffawed one of those surprised laughs. It took a moment for the elder to find her composure again, growing my smile even bigger. “Ah, kid, I haven't laughed like that in a while.”

“Gaige!” Knuckle whisper-yelled.

“What!” I whisper-yelled back.

“Behave!” His eyes bored into me, before flicking at Melina then back down to were I knew he kept his Hunter's license hidden. Oh. Right, this was a mission not just having a lark.

“Don't worry about your brother lad, he was just making a joke.” Melina said, patting Knuckle on his shoulder. “We don't have folk likely to smack the sass out of him.”

“Of course, just trying to teach the brat what being polite is really like.” He retorted, giving his voice this strange snarky inflection.

“Hey!” I said, pouting at him. I was short for my age, and while not lanky anymore I was still lithe. I could easily be mistaken for a petulant child. Just like any old scam, I just had to look close to what they wanted to see. Melina would do the rest on her own.

A couple people called out in greeting to Melina as we walked past, but none of them broke from their own routine to come by and actually have a conversation. Unlike the others, I couldn't keep track of that many people. Eventually, we winded down a small path towards the two building in the dead centre of town. The one on the left was larger with those weird plastic panels on the side of the building, while the other was a more traditional wooden building, with shutters instead of glass in their windows even.

The modern building was shorter too. Both were single floored, but the older one must have had taller ceilings. Between the two, I'm fairly certain I would rather live in the older one. It had more life to it, almost like it was a home where the other was an office or town hall. Actually, yeah, the plastic one had one of those town crests from back before the treaty.

Wait, a pre-treaty crest? On an island? I thought only the mainland had been involved in the Independence War. I suddenly wished I had listened to those lectures. I couldn't even read the crest, for all that I could recognize some symbols. The loyalist's crown sat on the bottom of the crest. Otherwise, the vague symbolism escaped me.

“Hey Gaige?” Knuckle said, dragging my attention back to the doorway of the older building. “Adele works here, let's go.” As I walked beside him, he leaned down and whispered. “Don't ask about the crest, we don’t need any more attention.”

I just nodded to him and continued on as if he didn't say anything. The inside of the home smelled of paper and ink. Strangely, only a single bookcase was in here, for all that smell. Then again, the bookcase was filled with old books; tomes, loose parchment, scrolls and a pair of engraved tablets. Otherwise, the room was relatively barren, two doors in the back, behind the dining table. Save for a desk by the bookshelf, the rest of the room was unused and covered in a layer of dust.

Melina coughed when she walked in, stirring up a dust storm. “Adele! You have visitors! And I told you to clean this place up!”

“Melina? I’ll be right there, I’m finishing up this page.” A voice called back, softer and less intense.

“Don’t mind her, she’s been working on a tome that Roderica brought back from her last expedition.” Melina explained, “If we didn’t look after her, I’m afraid she would forget to eat. Come in, I’ll just make this a little more livable.”

I looked at Knuckle in askance, but he just shrugged and let Melina pull a broom from behind the bookcase and give the room a brief sweep. So I walked over and read the tittles of the books on display. Most weren’t written in the trade tongue, but I couldn’t even begin to guess what language it was written in. Certainly the stone tablets were oldest, with the least recognizable alphabet, but the others didn’t form any patterns that would make it easier to form an order.

The puzzle was no closer to solved when the door opened behind me. Methodically turning, presenting no threat, I caught my first glimpse of Adele. She was dressed in jeans and a white sweater, looking much too warm to be comfortable. Her face was round, a deep caramel framed with locks of a deeper brown hair. She looked, normal, for a lack of a better word. Compared to Knuckle, Morel, Shoot, or even me she was just, normal.

“Ah, hello.” She said, her voice soft and pleasant. “Welcome to my home. How I can help the two of you?”

I looked at Knuckle, and he took the lead; “Well, Gaige and I are a touch lost after sailing into a storm. Melina mentioned that you had some maps, so if you wouldn’t mind we need to find out where we are.”

“Of course, just let me slip back and grab them.” Adele said, a small smile creeping onto her face. “Did you need anything, Melina?”

“I was just introducing them, but now that I’m here; Have you eaten today?”

“I had a bowl of oatmeal.” Adele said, nodding to the two of us. “I’ll be right back boys, just sit tight.”

“Okay,” Knuckle said.

“I have to head back to the fields, but Adele can take care of you two.” Melina said, messing my hair on the way out. “Good luck on finding your way home.”

“Thank you.” Knuckle and I said simultaneously. I grinned at him, but he didn’t pay it any mind. Instead, I turned back to the books in the shelf and tried to puzzle my way through ordering them. Looking at it again didn’t make the issue any less difficult, but it was refreshing to have something to work on. To see a finite list of elements and work towards completion. Quite welcome after fighting to even understand what achieving Ten required.

Still, I was no closer to an answer when Adele returned again, this time with a bundle of parchment under her arm. She moved to the table, gesturing at us to follow. Knuckle stood on her right side, so I took the left. Adele was short enough that I was up to her shoulder, something that felt weird. In any case, Adele took the rolled parchment and unravelled it on top of the table. The lines were drawn thick, with the whole map showing only a quarter of the mainland’s east coast. Still, in the corner, I found my old home town. Still there, as if there was anyone left alive.

Shaking my head, I scoured the map for Zendak. Adele found it first and pointed at the richly coloured dot that was this place. “This is Zendak, where are you guys trying to get to?”

Knuckle leaned forward to point at the Kakin Kingdom, and following the line to the country, I found Szelatchz right on the coast. All of that was further east from the sandbar that morel had wanted us to wait for him at. Actually, we were only a couple days sail from the initial meeting location. The storm must have dragged us back in the right direction. How fortunate.

“I don’t think we get any traders from the Kakin Kingdom, at least not regularly.” Adele said, biting her lip. “The most recent was a hunter’s expedition that resupplied here on the way towards the Venti States.”

“I’m sure we’ll find something.” Knuckle said, “Thank you for allowing us access to your maps. It’s nice knowing where we are.”

“Surely you don’t plan to swim.” Adele asked, visibly appalled.

“No, nothing of the sort. We’ll find something out.” Knuckle said, waving his hand in denial.

“If the two of you need a place to stay, I could let you take one of the spare bedrooms.” Adele said, “It’s not pleasant being stuck from home.”

“Are you stuck here too?” I asked, turning to look Adele in her eyes.

“Of a sort,” Adele admitted, a hint of shame colouring her voice. “So will the two of you need to take the spare room?”

“We’ll probably be fine,” Knuckle said, staring at me out of the corner of his eyes. “We built a shelter when we washed ashore yesterday.”

“Well, the offer stands. If you two need anything you need only ask. I have a bath at least, if you want to wash up.” Adele said. “I’ll keep an ear out for any new on ships dropping by.”

“Thank you,” Knuckle said, “Really, thank you. We’ll try to keep out of your hair as much as we can.”

With that, Knuckle herded me out. The walk out of town wasn’t dissimilar to the walk in, although instead of greetings, we got odd looks. It didn’t help that Milena wasn’t here to attract some of the attention off of us. Still, we got a couple of waves from the people and I got to wave back. This town was much nicer than were I grew up.

Once we got into the bog and away from the public eye, I turned to Knuckle; “Knuckle, what’s up? Why are we going back so soon?”

“We know where we are, so we can try to get back to Morel.” He replied, before continuing after a brief pause, “I was getting a weird feeling the entire time I was in town. Something isn’t right.”

“Shouldn’t we investigate then? Isn’t that what hunters do.”

“It’s not something I would drag you into, you’ve yet to achieve Ten.” Knuckle said.

Frustration boiled over, and I snapped at Knuckle; “I’m not made of glass just because I have little control over my aura! I’m a lot stronger than five months ago! Stop treating me like I’m useless!”

Knuckle paused, and turned to face me directly. “You really don’t understand what we mean, when we tell you how dangerous Nen is against non-practitioners.”

“I got away from the nen beast!” I shouted at Knuckle.

“I suppose a certain level of misunderstanding was inevitable.” Knuckle mused, looking off towards the sky. “Hey Gaige, try not to take this personally.”

“Take what persona-” I began, only to be cut off by a sudden suffocating feeling. The haze of aura that I had ignored around Knuckle grew dark and twisted, pressing down against me. The first I lost was sound, replaced with static assaulting my mind. My legs failed me next, sending me face down in the mud. Howling anger and blood lust pushed the air out of my lungs and locked them still. Sight left me, leaving a twisting abyss of shadows and death staring me down.

Then it was gone. Sense and control returned in a paralyzing rush. For a moment, I relished in the sound of my pounding heart, the feel of my heaving chest and the taste of mud in my mouth. The back of my shirt pinched and pulled me out of the mud. Blessed light burnt my eyes as I saw the world with a new eye. Knuckle faced me, his face drawn tight. His aura subdued and worried.

This was Nen.

“Do you understand Gaige?” He asked, his voice soft and barely more than a whisper. “Can you see why we worry for you?”

“I can.” I replied, a small tremor in my voice. “I understand.”

“Okay. I’m sorry I did that.” Knuckle said, sadness in his eyes.

“Don’t be,” I replied. “I couldn’t blame you for this. I needed to learn, to experience what you meant. Or I wouldn’t understand.”

“Even if it were necessary,” Knuckle said, a sad smile blooming onto his face, “I wish I hadn’t done it.”

“Well, I forgive you.” I said, “It was nothing compared to the beast that attacked my village, and will be nothing to those I’ll have to face in the future.”

“Fine,” Knuckle said, letting me down on the ground. “Let’s get back.”

“Sure!” I said, forcing cheer back into myself. I bounced ahead of Knuckle. “Do you think Shoot will have fished yet? I’ve never learned how to”

“Wait you don’t know how to fish?” Knuckle asked, aghast.

“Well, I lived in the middle of the continent, where was I supposed to fish?” I said, huffing and crossing my arms.

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to fix that then.” Knuckle said, taking a couple quick steps to catch up. “I’ll race you there?”

“You’re on!” I said, breaking into a sprint.

Behind me, I could hear Knuckle’s feet as he charged through the bramble. The run was fun, going over a river and jumping between trees when the ground was too treacherous. Knuckle claimed the lead quickly enough, but he never left my line of sight. The slight edges of exhaustion began to build in my legs, but I pushed through the discomfort. The two of us burst into the beach at almost the same time, where Shoot was stocking a couple water barrels onto the boat.

“Do we need to leave in a hurry?” Shoot asked.

“No, Gaige and I were just having a race back.” Knuckle said, turning and messing my hair. “Which I won.”

I stuck my tongue out at the meanie and bounced over to Shoot. “So could you teach me how to fish?”

“Sure, just let me put these away.” Shoot said, turning back to the ship and using his floating hands to lift barrels below deck. I tried to help where I could, but he just shooed me back and told me to meditate if I really wanted to help. He let me grumble, but eventually I folded and moved to sit a little ways away from the beach. With I breath, I turned my focus inwards, on my aura. Focused on Nen.

Nen is the blade’s edge betwixt wonder and horror.


End file.
